Topic: Baldur's Gate 3

@CJD87 haha was Astarion in your party at the time? He was in mine and it led to quite a fun encounter 😁😁😁 "oh, this pale MF with fangs who is clearly agitated by your presence? Nah, can't be him, it's day time, isn't it?" needless to say, it didn't end well for old vampire hunter, as my role as leader meant I was absolutely not allowing anyone to threaten the safety of any of my party, and a little nudge and wink and I let Astarion announce that he indeed was the Vamp he was looking for. And I got a nice crossbow out of it that I used for some time ☠️

@Ravix Ah unfortunately he wasn't with me at the time! It kills me to say this, but I have him permanently benched in camp... mainly because my character is a Rogue Class and having Astarion with me would dilute my overall group efficiencies (makes no sense to double up on Rogues I guess).

It must have been awesome to have him with you during that interaction! I think his back story, alongside Shadowheart, is one of the most interesting. Neil Newbon was incredibly deserving of the VA award at the Game Awards - Neil does a great job breathing life into that character.

How many hours did your first playthrough take out of interest? And did you play Balanced difficulty? Balanced seems perfect for me right now, as I am frequently challenged (having to reload a few fights, Hag took me a fair few goes) but not getting too wrecked.

@CJD87 yeah, balanced. Started on easy but realised very soon I could handle it on balanced despite being new. I've not quite finished, as i've been taking it slow, although I'm getting incredibly close now as I did one fairly big session last night to wrap up a few companion quests, I knew I'd need a longer session to be able to take in all that was happening as they were things I was invested in, and I'm glad I did.

But it's probably around the 250hr mark total.

I agree about Astarion and the performance, he hasn't been in my party a great deal, as my Bard has been quite rogue like in terms of traps and lockpicking and talking, but I've always kept him around for doing stuff that suits him more, stealth based stuff that I don't do as a Bard. But my most used party has been, Me and Shadowheart pretty much permanently, A front line force, early that was Lae'zel (superemely underrated character) and Karlach more for the middle and end of the game, and Gale for AOE who would be the one that swaps with Astarion. They are all absolute gold tbh.

But it is clear that Astarion is one of the best characters and performances, no matter how much you use him in the fights. By the end the performance steps up 100% and it is truly breathtaking as a character arc, in my game, anyway.

I basically finished a couple of character arcs last night and feel like I pretty much have to have a break from the game as it is so emotionally charged. So much to take in, and truly superb writing and performances.

@CJD87 I took the Hag down earlier today; good tip on using Gale's "missiles" to clear the duplicates! I didn't struggle too much with the fight though to be honest as I sneakily positioned everyone around the battlefield and Lae'zel and Karlech did the heavy hitting (although I did have to restart the fight as I accidentally killed the woman after extinguishing the flames on the cage... whoops!)

I actually did the goblin camp already. As I said before, I got in easily as I released Sazza from the grove and she let me in. Princess Gut I killed easily by sneaking everyone else in the party into the room and taking her out before she called for reinforcements. I poisoned the wine in the courtyard to take most of them out that way, and then I told the main boss I'd help them attack the grove before taking down the goblins from inside the grove (a tough fight!).

Although I'm currently trying to sneak back in to go explore the secret area in Gut's chamber..

Oh dammit, I finally made it back to that point and then realised there’s a fast travel point there 😁

@Thrillho What truly fascinates me about this game is the differentiation between everyone's experiences... it must be nearly impossible for any given player to experience 'everything' unless you're willing to undertake numerous playthroughs? Interesting you had Karlach for the Hag, as I hadn't actually recruited her yet! The 'Magic Missiles' tip was solid - I often forget what spells/skill each character has due to the wealth of options, and occasionally just need to re-familiarise myself with their action wheels lol. Well done on the camp, I'm planning to go back in full-on assault mode as soon as I hit level 5!

@Ravix Yeh agree completely that all the VAs are pretty incredible, Lae-zel also is a terrific performance in fairness. Really goes to show the power that these performances can have, in terms of immersion and also overall 'game quality'. Makes me think back to Disco Elysium.... how different that game must have been for those who played it pre-VA patch? (I can't imagine reading all that text, without audio performances!!)
Lae-zel is a permanent fixture in my party also, albeit she tends to miss a lot? I have her using the flame sword I pillaged from the commander within the tutorial session, but she seems to rarely land hits!
How would you rank BG in your GOTY assessment?

@CJD87 for hit chance keep an eye on those percentages and make sure to get the "+ number" in the inventory up, as that is attack roll bonus, the thing that determines hit success (Proficiency in certain weapons and using weapons with a good bonus to attack rolls are what you need to look out for. For example a weapon good damage might actually not be the best one if it has a low percentage to land) If you have great weapon master trait, there is also a toggle in the radial dial for either +5 damage (or something) but a minus to attack roll/hit chance, so you can always flick that bit to off and you still get the extra attack from the trait. It depends how you are building her though, and it could just be a balance thing, as she gets to make a lot of attacks (not sure how Karmic dice work as i've not looked into that) it could also be that she is attacking people in melee that have high melee defence.

Oh it's my game of the year by far, despite loving my time with Zelda and FF16, BG3 just hits different and made me learn a totally new way to play. I imagine Alan Wake 2 could compete in a wildly different way, as the concept and design is right up my alley, I just suck at Survival Horror and have been too busy with BG3, and too scared I'll ruin the experience by being crap at it, to try it out yet 😅

I would say that overall, BG3 is yet to top TW3 for me, but that is only because I really, really favour action and open world games, and the DLC's especially made me such a big fan of the Witcher and that got me into the books too, but BG3 has made me crave its combat encounters in this tactical mode too to be fair, I'm just not really seeking out other DnD experiences yet, but the game itself, I'd definitely play more of.

@CJD87 Did you see the video I posted on the previous page? It was someone talking through all of the different ways people had managed to complete the goblin camp and some of them would never have though of.

Amazing that Larian were able to think of all of those options and manage to implement them all.

@Thrillho Yes I did see your video on the previous page... but I actually stopped watching 10 seconds in, as I didn't want to 'influence' my own forthcoming tackling of the camp! Once my Goblin massacre is complete, I plan to watch in entirety.... and see how lacklustre my own methodology was vs. some of the most creative minds in the community lol.
Hard agree that Larian are geniuses to have integrated so many avenues in this game.

@Ravix Thanks and you were absolutely right re. Lae-Zel...... I had a toggle/ability on that meant her likelihood to connect a hit was reduced, in favor of doing more damage on the occasions she actually does land. Considering many of the current enemies have high armor class, this explains why I seemed to miss majority of hits. I have toggled off for the meantime, and now she is super effective... thanks!

it's my favorite game this year.

Ooooh, I'm so close to the end. I've been dragging it out as long as possible, and there is literally only one quest "steal a githyanki egg" (or maybe two if you include: embrace the tadpole) that will forever sit in my journal unfinished.

The emotional impact of finishing Astarion and Karlach's quest gave me time to pause and reflect back on the game, which has been phenomenal. And last night I went on intending to finish up, but I got a bit sidetracked exploring and found a graveyard that i'd not discovered and then decided to go the tombstones route towards my final destination, just to see how that played out... I was not expecting to meet

😁😁😁

I still need to finish off the final encounters next time I'm on, but there is literally no more to do, and no going back from here 😁

I made it through the Underdark recently having finally cleared the area (including the arcane tower). I didn’t realise hitting the Grymforge from there was the beginning of Act 2; I was expecting some sort of big story event to signal the end of the first act 😁

Instead of plowing on there, I’ve taken a step back and gone to do the mountain pass route and am currently deep into the monastery and looking for the Githyanki crèche.

@Thrillho I wouldn't worry about the act 2 thing, I think that is mostly just the PlayStation console saying it's act 2 at a certain point, when really it's a bit more free form than it can fathom. And yeah, like you are doing, you can still head the other way too and then travel back to the forge to do all that area. I'd say doing the Grymforge section last is more like the proper end of act 1/emergence into act 2, and things will be clearer (or not) when you've done all that 😁 act 2 is technically accessible to you once you are at the forge/mountain pass, I guess, but really that would mean skipping so much content, and it is worth doing all the stuff that is available before actually advancing to the real act 2.

Depending on what you end up doing, it could still be some time before you get to the real act 2 area anyway 😁

Hopefully this comment was mysterious enough 😁😁 but so many times I was like "oh this is just a cool little side bit, I must be close to the next act" before many hours later thinking, "oh, okay that was like a full act worth of content in itself too" 😅

I'm glad I read all this, because I am currently in Grymforge...! I have found the elevator that leads to the Moonrise Tower, but my party were deterred from using this yet until I speak with Nere(?) who is allegedly trapped somewhere due to a rockfall I believe.
My plan was to 'clear' Grymforge and then fast travel back to the surface to do the mountain pas and Githyanki creche.
Once I've done the creche I think I'll be good to go with act 2!

How much longer is act 2 btw? Or shorter than act 1?

@CJD87 I think it's maybe about the same, possibly slightly shorter, depending. But as you advance both act 2 and 3 can be longer or shorter depending on whether you are mainlining the story or doing everything, or based on how you approach the main area of interest in act 2 (I hung around there for a while as it is strongly hinted at that you don't need to just go and kill stuff. Plus I discovered a bunch of stuff just by exploring) There is also a much more legit point of no return screen in act 2, but you will know when you get there, and it is much further down the line, so just trust the pop up and do everything available in your journal and uncover all the map just to be sure before clicking advance.

Finished! 😁

Phew. What a great experience. Took me longer than Elden Ring, or the Witcher 3 + its DLC's, but I never once fell off it, or lost interest, which is a testament to great games.

I don't know how it only cost like £50, or less with vouchers and PSstars, for months and months of entertainment. Tremendous value 👏

And the music is still playing, the credits still rolling now as the PS5 wants to enter rest mode 😁

To any of the others that finished long before me, care to put in spoilers how your end game went? And did you do the epilogue they added?

Me and @CJD87 in this thread;

This evening I managed to finish of the Githyanki creche section which escalated pretty quickly.

@Thrillho Ha!

I'm currently causing chaos in Grymforge, and actually failing a few dice rolls.... my intent is really to try to avoid 'bloodshed', but these dodgy rolls are leading to all-out massacre!
Once GF is sorted, I'm off to the creche! Looking forward to that as Lae-Zel is a permanent fixture in my party, and keen to see how her quest plays out.

On a side note, I know we all love Astarion (and rightly so).... but over the course of the last 30ish hours I have really begun to appreciate Gale! Genuinely very well written, and a pretty solid character. Far from the 'goody two shoes' I had him pegged as, he proves to be a great addition to my team in terms of skillset and personality.

Potential spoiler - has anyone with Gale in their party seen what happens when he dies?? Very interesting!

I feel I’ve made pretty good progress on this, despite a few days away from it over Crimbo.

I finally finished up in Grymforge. Found the forge itself and defeated the boss without using the hammer (actually not too difficult).

Struggled with the fight against the slavers and Nere so restarted and took the smaller enemies down before blowing up the rocks. Buddied up to Nere after releasing him before surrounding and killing him before he could enter combat.

Have been wandering the shadowlands for a while and been to the Inn. Managed to complete that fight successfully and continuing to explore that whole area now.